“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

George Orwell wrote that very powerful and truthful statement, which was personified in my nephew Ryan, who enlisted in the Army and took the military oath to defend the Constitution of the United States yesterday. My sister-in-law took some photos and I highly recommend you head on over and read her post. But I warn you. It has a powerful emotional punch so make sure you have tissues nearby. Here’s a portion:

[T]hey ask the recruits to state their name, what branch they are joining, job training and why they wanted to join. Ryan was the fourth guy to speak. The three guys prior to him were embarrassed and couldn’t think of a reason why they joined other than, “it was something to do,’ etc. I wondered what Ryan would say because he gets very uncomfortable with any type of public speaking. But he calmly stated his name, branch, job, and then gave his reason for joining.

“I want to serve my country.”

Ahhh…the tears started to roll. About half of the recruits ended up giving the same reason and it was so touching. So, so, so humbling.